Council employs a team of Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) to ensure that food is of the standard expected by consumers and that it has been prepared and sold to a high standard of hygiene. In order to achieve this EHOs conduct regular food premises inspections and undertake sampling programs to test the microbiological and chemical standard of food.
Food premises inspections
Food premises inspections are regarded as a core duty of Environmental Health Officers. Food poisoning is far more common than people realise and the incidence would be far higher if people did not attribute symptoms to other causes (e.g. Stomach virus). It should be kept in mind that correct food hygiene principles apply equally in the home as they do in commercial premises.
Food Sampling Program
Council’s Environmental Health Section undertakes routine sampling and monitoring for the chemical and bacterial quality of food offered for sale in the Shire of Mundaring. The focus is on products manufactured in the Shire of Mundaring such as meats, bread and pies however many other products are also sampled. The purpose of the program is to monitor compliance with the bacterial and chemical requirements of the Health Act 1911 and the Food Standards Code.
In conjunction with the routine food sampling program, the Environmental Health Section has been actively involved with the Food Monitoring Group consisting of the Wanneroo, Stirling, Swan, Bassendean, Belmont and Bayswater Local Authorities and the Western Australian Food Monitoring Group.
Through the Food Monitoring Group, coordinated sampling of a wide range of products is undertaken. This includes bread, flour premix, wholemeal products, pies, canned meats, fish, pates, imported foods/exotic foods, sauces, vegetable and fruit juice, cordials, coffee, infant foods, canned vegetables, vinegar, dairy products and fat products.
Australian and New Zealand Food Authority – Food Safety Standards
The Australian and New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) recently introduced new national Food Safety Standards for Australia. The new standards are designed to help businesses keep food safe and reduce the level of food-borne illness in Australia.
Environmental Health Officers are engaged in notification and education of food premises proprietors and staff to highlight the new requirements and how they would affect them. For further information on the ANZFA guidelines the following websites located in Related Links may be helpful.
FoodSafe Program
The FoodSafe Program was developed by the Western Australian Division of the Environmental Health Australia WA/NT (formally Australian Institute of Environmental Health) as an in-house training program that brings basic food hygiene information directly to food handlers. To become FoodSafe, all food handlers in the business must practice what they have learned on a daily basis. To display a FoodSafe sticker and certificate, training and practices must be assessed by the local government EHO as being to the FoodSafe standard.
Incorporated into the food premises inspection statistics are audits of existing FoodSafe premises to ensure that the requirements of the program are being maintained. Environmental Health Officers also promote FoodSafe to food premises proprietors in an endeavour to raise standards and improve food hygiene practices.
FoodSafe Training packages are also available in Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malay and Thai.
To cater for those food businesses that wish to go beyond the basic food hygiene training of FoodSafe, there is the FoodSafe Plus program. This is a program based on hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) principles. Basically, this requires a food business to identify each stage of its food processing; identify what can go wrong at each stage; and put in place actions that prevent problems from happening.
Further information regarding any of Council’s Food Quality Surveillance Programs can be obtained by phoning the Environmental Health Services on 9290 6666.